[Photos and text are from our family archives unless otherwise noted]
My grandmother’s grandfather, J.J. Carpenter, acquired land in Colorado in 1908 as part of President Roosevelt’s Homestead Act. He eventually built a lodge in Cebolla (near Gunnison, CO), that went by various names – Carpenter’s Fishing Lodge, Sportsman Hotel, and Sportsman’s Lodge. My mother grew up near there, my grandmother and her sister played there, and my grandmother and her husband worked there for a short time in the 1920’s.
It has long held fascination for me, not only because the Carpenters were ‘big fish in a little pond’ in Gunnison, but also because of a family story that claims that the Carpenter boys took guests out on hunting parties, and that one of those parties included Buffalo Bill Cody.
And, there was a bear, whom guests would feed with beer. Published stories list the bear’s name as Maude, though the third photo in this series has a note on the back of “Nellie Bear”. Needless to say, I have a lot of stories to track down…
At center – an unidentified woman (which might be Velma) with what appears to be the bear in the lower right corner.
At right, “Nellie Bear” on her post, waiting for the train to arrive. The lodge guest cabins are in the background.
